I AM CAUGHT BEHIND THE FORMER IRON CURTAIN, AND MY POSTS CAN'T GET OUT.

I'LL TRY AGAIN NEXT WEEK FROM FRANCE.

SORRY 'BOUT THAT

Are People Really That Stupid?Fortunately, the answer to the above question is usually "No." However, people do enough fairly-stupid to seriously-stupid things to keep the rest of us entertained most of the time. Unfortunately, the human race is in the middle of doing a couple of really stupid things that may result in wiping ourselves off the face of the planet. Given this scenario, the blogger might be forgiven if the subjects he covers range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Feel free to join in. Maybe you'll say something smart.

All right, folks in the rest of the world. Here's one of those First World problems that some of us are wrestling with in Canada: the dreaded High School Dress Code! Imagine this. Girls are not allowed to wear tops with spaghetti straps. No one is allowed to wear shorts higher than his or her fingertips when stretched down straight. No underwear may be revealed. T-shirts with inappropriate messages are forbidden. Can you imagine? Whatever happened to freedom of expression?

With the coming of warm weather two things are inevitable in Canada: the return of the wild geese from their wintering grounds in South America, and a rash of protests from young ladies who want the right to flaunt whatever parts of their bodies and underclothing they choose (somehow the guys don't seem to be complaining) at school. Their argument is that instead of teaching girls to cover their bodies we should be teaching the boys not to see girls as sexual objects.
Of course, the school authorities respond that the dress code is set and reviewed each year by a panel of teachers, administrators, parents, and students, and that if anyone wants it changed, there are proper procedures.

As usual, the media (bad news seems to fall off as the weather improves) jump on the band wagon and spread this protest far and wide. They give some air-head her fifteen minutes of fame (usually backed by her supportive mother, basking there in reflected glory) as she complains that she "just wants an argument I can understand." And then proceeds to demonstrate that "I don't understand" is the perfect argument when you don't have one. Some long-suffering administrator explains that one of the functions of school is to teach young people the realities of the world, and that soon they will be out in a work environment where dress codes are often mandatory. Her response? "I don't understand. I know someone who is allowed to wear spaghetti straps to her work. Why can't I?" To this undeniable logic she adds, "If I had a job where I didn't like the dress code, I would get a different job."

Sure you will, kid. Has your mother ever sat you down and had a little chat about the reality of the workplace?

To give the argument a moment of serious thought (which the young lady and mother apparently have not). Women the world over are fighting for the right to wear what they want, to be allowed to express themselves and their individual personalities in freedom. Are Canadian girls any different? Shouldn't they be showing solidarity with their beleaguered sisters in the rest of the world?

In a word, no.

Give any group a freedom, even one they richly deserve, and a few individuals will take advantage of the chance to push it farther than they should. This is the process by which society periodically redefines its boundaries. And who but teenagers are the ideal ones to perform this testing? Once they get older, most of them become too responsible for that sort of silliness, because they understand their responsibility to monitor their own behaviour. However, at High School level, it just isn't realistic to expect children to dress appropriately without some sort of guidelines.

The Elephant in the Room
What none of the school officials or media questioners dares to mention is adolescent sexuality. It is the expressed opinion of many of these girls that they should be able to wear anything they like; the problem is the attitude of the guys. In an ideal world, this would be fine. What the discussion is missing is the fact that many of the girls at the High School level are experimenting with their newfound sexual power, and are quite happy to objectify themselves. Given the opportunity, a few of them would wear wildly inappropriate clothing, if only for the attention it would attract. You have to spend some time with junior high school students to realize what a seething sea of hormones these children exist in, and how difficult it is to get them to concentrate on anything besides their effect on the opposite gender. We have to remember that in this situation we are dealing with children. We encumber them with rules to ensure their safety. At the very least, a dress code protects them from making complete fools of themselves. Because some of them always will.

As a teacher, one of my main objectives in any class of any age was to create an atmosphere of safety, and an essential element of safety is respect. Respect for themselves, respect for their classmates, respect for the knowledge they needed to learn. If I got that kind of feeling going, I didn't need to worry about respect for myself or the institution; it just came naturally. At the Junior High level, that took a lot of training and a lot of patience on my part, but I never had any problem with baseball caps or cell phones in class, and if I thought a student was wearing inappropriate clothing, I took that student aside and stated my point and the reason for it. Each and every time, the student fixed the problem with no argument. They tried it on, it didn't work, they gave it up. And they were comfortable in knowing that the classroom was a safe place, where everyone's feelings and ideas were taken into account, and there were rules that everyone followed. Kids, especially teenagers, like to test the boundaries every once in a while. Just to be sure that they exist. But let's not confuse this with newsworthy protest against serious wrongs.

Speaking of Safety.
A much larger elephant that sometimes stomps all over young women because it gets ignored is that this is not an ideal world. I know it's wrong, and I know we should be teaching men otherwise, but the unwritten rules that govern the acceptability of a woman's clothing must, for safety reasons, be dictated by what certain dangerous segment of the population thinks. And I'm talking about both men and women. I know this will make some people's blood boil, but there is a basic validity to the opinion that if you're not selling, you shouldn't be advertising. Because there is a certain segment of the population that will assume that you are advertising what they want to buy. Or take for free.

Other Cultural Values
Before some of you go postal on me, let me give you an example. I have travelled in moderate Muslim countries, where every woman is always clothed from head scarf to ankles to wrists. The teenagers may wear tight jeans and form-fitting tops, but they are definitely covered. The men wear long sleeves and long pants. That is the preference of the culture.
Then you see tourist women from other cultures, some of them teenagers with their families, flaunting their freedom to dress as they choose. They may be morally right, but how stupid is that?

Once again, I think it comes back the parents. How important are your freedoms to you? Will you really feel satisfied if your daughter is raped because of the clothing you let her wear? Is it that important to demonstrate your cultural superiority? No matter what you think the world should be like, flouting the rules in a foreign country will make no changes, and will only bring you grief.

And it's the same at home. Those rules weren't made up for fun. If you don't like them, find a way to figure out whether it would be wise to change them. Looking like an idiot is hardly going to do that.

I have a message for those girls who swear they're not doing it for the attention or for the simple sake of rebellion. There are plenty of evils at your school and out in the world that need your attention: bullying, world poverty, the true repression of females. If you really want to make the world a better place, get involved with one of those important struggles. Make a difference. Complaining about the dress code is a cheap trick in several different ways.
And if you get interviewed again, take a quick glance at your mother. Is she perhaps enjoying the attention a little too much herself?

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Gordon A. Long is a semi-retired teacher living in
Delta, British Columbia. There he indulges his life-long interests in writing,
theater, photography, travel, dogs, and sailing (not necessarily in that
order).

He also runs Airborn Press and helps beginning writers with
editing, proofreading, designing, publishing and marketing their books. His
business experience includes providing technical and management services in the
theatrical and convention field for forty years, from school and amateur
theatre all the way up to the 2010 Olympics.

Has he invested in the Stock Market? Yes. Was he successful? Yes. Did he
make a killing? Not a chance. He isn't that smart. Or that stupid.